Xigmatek has been gracious enough to allow me to test quite a few of their coolers. All of the usual suspects cross my mind; the 1283's, 1284's and even the Thor's Hammer. In between there have been many variations of each, except for the Hammer, mostly consisting in the beginning with a different fan. More recently, Xigmatek had gone the way of various Nickel plated coatings to enhance and refresh the coolers line. This time I am happy to say it isn't either of those reasons that has me excited about this cooler.

This time around, it is a bit more in depth than the more obvious increase of the CFM of the fan, or adding coatings for both performance and oxidation factors, as well as making cleaning a bit easier in my opinion, of which this new CPU cooler does have both. It has also got a more appealing figure. Xigmatek has provided a uniquely shaped 1283 cooler that is appealing to me, as it is a change from the same old thing.

As with most of the current line of Xigmatek CPU coolers, they are taking on the names of Norse gods and main players in their mythology. This time around is no exception, it takes on the name of Balder. This mythological man was most known for his death and rebirth, very fitting in my opinion of the cooler in my hands. I think it is about time to get some images and get the testing underway. Then we can see how well the rebirth of the 1283 goes for Xigmatek.